New personnel to work with children in need of intervention

Come September, several schools will be seeing additional personnel to help identify and work with children in need of intervention.

Addressing the end of marathon talks at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Saturday night, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Santia Bradshaw disclosed that several secondary schools will have an additional guidance counsellor assigned to them in the new school year to help at risk children.

Meanwhile, at the primary school level, for the first time social workers would be working with the teachers and students to help combat instances of violence.

“Nobody becomes deviant at the age of 16, the patterns have shown that the signs are there often at the primary school level, sometimes even manifesting at the nursery school level and it is really a situation that we have to start and deal with this issues at the root cause,” she argued.

Bradshaw joined with Prime Minister Mia Mottley in pleading for parents to step up to their roles and be more active in their children’s lives, noting that often youth needed a loving guiding hand, not only during times of examinations and career choices, but throughout their transition to becoming an adult.

“It is high time that we don’t only pay attention when the children have gone into secondary school or when it is around the exam or third form year where they go on to specialize,” she stressed, adding that “it is now time for parents to pay attention to their charges on a regular basis.”

Bradshaw therefore urged parents to get involved in Parent/Teacher Associations and to attend the meetings, noting that the dwindling numbers of parents and caregivers who showed up for these was concerning. (JMB)